This is the last chance to show your opposition for this scheme and support councillors who also oppose it.

The full council of NYCC will debate whether to give final approval to the scheme.The debate starts at 2pm. There should be plenty of room to hear the debate if you wish. We’d like to fill the council chamber and the extra room they have put on for us.
We will be putting forward our case strongly.

Finance

The finances don’t stack up – the supposed savings (which we still say are too high) have been dropping ever since we contested them. They started at £324 million. They are now only £11m in current terms over the lifetime of the contract. That doesn’t include penalties.

Penalties – if the county does not supply sufficient waste to burn, the financial penalties will be enormous.

Cuts to services – we’ve seen some serious cuts already. To pay for this thing there will be even more to come

It will cost a lot more to burn waste in the Allerton incinerator than to deal with it in one of the many alternative ways

The alternatives have not been properly investigated or costed. Cheaper greener options are available now

This is a 25 year contract. The county needs to be open to more flexible options.

Outdated technology. It will burn over 80% of everything that goes through the gate.

Other arguments still apply

Major landscape impact from the incinerator confirmed by the County Architect;

Major traffic implications;

Potential risks to health (especially since the component of commercial and industrial waste has been added in, contrary to the original plan); and so on.

Please be there

Latest progress

We’ve been working hard behind the scenes

The EU – There are no fewer than five matters before various EU bodies concerning illegal state aid, human rights breaches and breaches of EU law.

The Local Government Ombudsman is considering 2 matters concerning the behaviour of North Yorkshire County Council during the planning process.

Planning – We are challenging the Section 106 agreement struck as part of the AWRP scheme. The local community would not benefit fully from the c£2 million that has been earmarked under Section 106 – around half is due to go to a local landowner to re-build perimeter walls and repair listed buildings, the cost of which should not be met from public monies.

£125 million worth of PFI credits withdrawn – North Yorkshire County Council and City of York Council have dropped their Judicial Review of the Government’s decision to withdraw £125 million worth of PFI credits for the scheme. This inevitably undermines the financial viability of the scheme.

Lobbying – We are continuing to work closely with local MPs and MEPs, who have been very supportive in opposing the Allerton Park scheme, as well as lobbying county, city and borough councillors.

Loss of Public Services – we are getting information (which we’ll clarify when we have full confirmation) that NYCC are squirrelling away over £70 million to finance the incinerator while making massive cuts to public services. Why??

Financially unviable As we forecast, many of the financial assumptions that underpin the case made by NYCC and CYC to justify the scheme are proving to be inaccurate.

Incinerators abandoned elsewhere – Bradford and Calderdale, where their incinerator scheme had PFI credits withdrawn at the same time as Allerton, has DECIDED TO DITCH THE SCHEME ENTIRELY because it is no longer financially viable.
Also the Kings Lynn incinerator is now recommended for refusal.

This whole project is becoming more and more of a burden. Why don’t they stop it?

Our main points are that the whole consultation presumes that the incinerator will be built and we feel very strongly that the consultation is designed to confuse.

You may like to include something like the message below in your answer.

The style of the consultation papers seems to us to be deliberately designed to put people off from responding to his consultation. To put it at its most charitable the author(s) are excessively verbose and deliberately confusing in their presentation and some diagrams are confusing to say the least.

Moreover, the author(s) appear to have deliberately avoided giving clear options and ignored obvious options which would avoid undue and excessive public expense.

You must not assume that we agree with points that we have not commented on. In particular, we do not think the options presented are comprehensive or complete and emphasise that other options should be developed

In view of the approach adopted by the author(s) to stifle public participation, you should not believe that there being a limited number of public responses would signify that people accept the approach you have taken.

Judicial Review decision 9 August 2013

We learnt today that the Judicial Review claim has not succeeded in getting the planning permission for the Allerton Waste Recovery Park quashed.

Although the Judge listened carefully to the arguments put forward very powerfully by the Q.C. for Marton-cum-Grafton Parish Council (who led the legal action against the incinerator), they were not strong enough to prevail.

This is clearly a very disappointing outcome for all of us who have supported the campaign opposing this crazy project. It is important to understand the judgment doesn’t mean the courts think the incinerator is a good idea – rather it does not agree that aspects of the planning process were flawed. You can read the full judgement here.

We will be reviewing the judgment with our advisers to explore whether there are further legal steps we can take. The judgment runs to some 25 pages and it will take some time to consider. There’ll be a further newsletter in a week or two to let you know what’s happening.

It would be wrong to say this news is anything other than deeply disappointing, however it does not mean our fight is over. We will be taking legal advice on the possibility of an appeal and will continue to pursue through the European Commission our belief that illegal subsidies from the public purse underpin the scheme. We’re also fully behind the Government in its decision to withdraw Private Finance Initiative credits – worth £125M over the life of the scheme – after it decided the scheme was unnecessary and did not represent value-for-money.

Watch this space.

Fantastic news: On February 21st the Government withdrew funding of the PFI for the incinerator!

Ealier Good News – On 11 September 2012 Harrogate Borough Council Planning Committee sent NYCC a powerful message that they should start listening to the residents of North Yorkshire. They unanimously reaffirmed their total opposition to the scheme following new submissions by Amey Cespa and groups like Nywag who oppose the scheme.

Good News – On 7th March 2012 Harrogate Borough Council approved unanimously a resolution to condemn the Amey Cespa proposal and asking for it to be called in for a public inquiry

Two reports have been commissioned from Eunomia by the Parish Councils Group. Eunomia are a highly respected group of consultants who have advised around 120 waste collection authorities across the UK. They have concluded, among many other things, that

The proposed AWRP will not enable NYCC to achieve the current Government’s requirement for 50% recycling by 2020

In terms of climate change, the AWRP solution performs at least as badly as landfill (the ‘do nothing’ option), and far worse than both a MBT ‘Dual Fuel’ solution and a MBT ‘biostabilisation’ solution

NYWAG are a group of concerned residents. We represent over 10,000 people across the whole of North Yorkshire, who are opposed to incineration as a waste solution anywhere in the UK with a focus on the planned construction of an incinerator site at Allerton Park Quarry, between Harrogate and York.